Richards Bay coach confident of progress despite defeat

Richards Bay might be only one point above the Betway Premiership relegation zone but coach Ronnie Gabriel is confident they can still chase a place in the top eight at the end of the season.

Richards Bay lost 2-1 away at Cape Town City on Friday to remain in 14th place with nine points from 14 games, one more than Royal AM who have played 11 and two more than Magesi, who have played 12.

Gabriel’s side let slip an early lead after Yamela Mbuthuma scored as City came back with a double French striker Amadou Soukouna to win the game.

“I'm positive. With these types of performances, we can get results,” said Gabriel of Richards Bay’s immediate prospects as they now have five successive home games on their schedule.

“This game could have given us three points had we taken our chances. It's just the minor details that are missing and we'll get it right going forward,” he promised.

“With a few home games coming up, we’ll pick up the points. We can end up at the end of the first round in position 10, and then we’ll fight for the top eight.

“The points difference is marginal in this league. You win few games and move up very quickly. Look at Cape Town City. They won two games on the trot after they were right near the bottom of the league. The two wins took them right up. So we can also achieve those type of results.”

Gabriel bemoaned a series of missed chances in the first half that might have seen Richards Bay extend their lead.

“I felt we started off very well. We had a good first half and created numerous goalscoring chances. The score could have been at least 3-0 to us,” said Gabriel.

“Then they caught us with a counter attack and we conceded a goal to be 1-1 at half time. It was also a balanced second half, but we got caught off a cross and without any cover.

"I don’t feel it’s the correct result but we’ve got to take it, we’ve got to accept, we’ve got to grow from these type of results and get better in the future, and maybe not give such easy goals away and maybe be a little more stubborn defensively,” he added.